I remember being told to lose 5-10% of my body weight and I would be fine. I was overweight, but not obese, and I DID lose 15% of my body weight, and guess what, it not only didn't go away, but got progressively harder to control. I've gone reduced-carb, and that helps, but doesn't cure the diabetes. I still need insulin, and I am very glad to have it.
You sound like you should be a member of my Type Weird club. Those of us who just don't quite fit in any of the boxes. And have to be our own advocates, because we're entirely below the radar as far as the medical profession is concerned.
Thats good to know..thanks guys! I didn't even think about taking the pump off to shower! How does your body get insulin? Does the pump release constant insulin?
The pump releases 'drops' of insulin, not quite all the time but little bits here and there for the basal I think? I still have dawn phenomena, not always 'regular' but I don't keep track of notes or anything like that. The MiniMedSalesNurse suggested bolusing .3U of insulin before I unplug the pump and get ready and that works great, kind of kick starting breakfast for me? The pump notes that as IOB when I get my breakfast bolus 20 or 30 min later but it's kind of a head start on top of the slight basal bump I already have to deal w/ DP?
Actually, with the Animas Ping, it is waterproof so you don't have to take that one off to get a shower. I read about someone with a MM that had problems disconnecting hers in the morning and started taking her showers at night so that was a turnoff to me. Most days, I do take it off for my shower because of trying to figure out where to stick it, but if my BS is running high, then I leave it on.
FWIW, I've had several bad hypos and they don't faze me all that much. People w/ plaid hair, family turning into space aliens, HUGE echoey reverb, all sorts of crazy stuff. It's just a side affect. I'd rather not be bothered but accidents happen. It is challenging to talk your way out of the ER without drinking the entire 32-48 oz orange juice they give you, on top of sandwich, chips, cookies, etc. I mostly feel bad about the inconvenience to others but I figure I am saving them attending my funeral, carting me around after complications knock me off my feet (or knock my feet off?) or keep them from moving the furniture.
Ideally, you can experience some lows under more controlled conditions so you can manage it better? I am not sure that I'd take working out 3x/day over insulin. That seems like it would be asking for an overuse injury, if not a traumatic one?
Well, you might just want to go on insulin if the oral meds didn't work, and your BGs were just going higher and higher, and you were trying to teach a 55 minute highschool class, and couldn't get through the last 15 minutes without crossing your legs because you needed to pee so bad, and couldn't get a sentence out without a gulp of water!! And you were hungry all the time, even when your stomach was so full of food that it hurt!
I have had lows of 32 and 37, but they didn't put me off insulin -- oh, no, I don't want to be symptomatic again!
If you look at LilMaMa's picture, she is young and not overweight -- and that's enough reason in itself to suspect LADA, and not just settle for a Type 2 diagnosis without antibody tests. In the beginning, LADA's may have low-to-normal insulin production, because the autoimmune attack is so slow, and a normal C-peptide without antibody tests is not sufficient to rule out LADA.
Also, orals for a new LADA are a bad idea, because they tend to overwork the beta cells, whereas if you take insulin, and keep your BGs down, the beta cells get a rest, recover from glucotoxicity, and may last a little longer. Having a bit of your own insulin production can really make control easier! I'm glad they put you on insulin as soon as possible -- it will keep you healthier in the long run!
That is certainly true! In that sense, I think that T2 can be a lot more difficult and I am not sure, at least from accounts I've read, that doctors really understand that much about it? Unfortunately, my honeymoon has been over for a long time.
Thats what I currently do..I work out multiple times a day and am exhausted BUT I am not having to take insulin yet. How often have you passed out or had the ambulance called? Do they really make you drink that much OJ??lol Do you use a CGM?
Thats my fear of intervening early with insulin..guess when I think of insulin I think of needles (which don't phase me) and passing out from low blood sugar which scares the c--p out of me!!
Natalie-Did you not have symptoms before your BG was that low?? What I would like to know is at what point do you pass out or you are unable to take care of your low by yourself lol I'm such a worry wart but I've always wondered...
Anyone on insulin should be testing their BS before they get behind the wheel of a car. Obviously, your BS can crash and that is not a foolproof method to stop things from happening. However, if I were on a jury, I would be a lot more sympathetic to someone that had tested their BS 15 minutes before the accident happened than someone that had not checked in 4 hours.
Lil Mama, I went 25 years on insulin before ever passing out and the passing out started when I started having some other health issues that screwed up my BS. I used to run 10 miles a day on the old NPH & Regular insulins and everyone used to say they were unstable.
That threshold is different for everyone. I have heard about people zonking out in the 40s and I have checked my BS several times under 20. The problem really is when you become hypo-unaware and lose symptoms of hypos.
It had been maybe 15 years until last summer when a 'perfect storm' of suddenly increasing my amount of exercise (there again! It's bad for you!), overbolusing, under eating and drinking caught up w/ me. I think MrsAcidRock had it under control but somebody else called the EMTs and once they are called, it's off you go. Oh well. It happened several times when I was in my early 20s, most often when I had impaired my Dawn Phenomenon by getting blasted, then I'd wake up, bolus (w/ R you have to wait anyway...) and sort of doze back off. Not a good combo.
They didn't make me drink it, although the doctor told me to and I told her "that is like 150G of carbohydrates and I am not eating chicken salad either. Blech. Thanks for the chips". I had a whiff of the orange juice b/c I was a bit woozy and ended up around 200 but also probably had glucagon or IV dextrose floating around. I'm sure if I had swilled all the orange juice and had a more appetizing sandwich, it would have been a lot higher. You have to really be assertive w/ those people because they really don't know what they are doing with this stuff.
I've read a bunch of running books and studied Tae Kwon Do for five years. When I was at perhaps my peak of fitness for that, I was running and lifting during lunch and then 1 or 2 hours of TKD in the evenings w/ one 1.5 hour moe advanced class, the sort of class I'd lose 5-6 lbs of sweat on Friday night and then a 25-30 mile bike ride or maybe 5 mile run on the weekend. It was very hard and interesting to have done but unless you are some sort of exercise professional and can also devote 15-20 min to get stretched out, etc. before you work out and do core exercises to stave off back problems and a bunch of other stuff, I don't think that exercising hard 3x/ day is a realistic? Even high school football players only do "two a days"?
Plus, if you are 'dependent' on the exercise and blow some sort of gasket and have to take time off, without any other way to approach managing BG, it would sort of leave you high and dry and endorphine-less having to figure out insulin/metformin or whatever other options you might have available. If you can figure those out while you are healthy, I would think it would allow you to more smoothly integrate it and, perhaps, relax and sit in a hot tub occasionally!
A lot of times too, by the time you've passed out and the paramedics arrived, someone has perhaps dumped orange juice in your face or whatever exertionary mechanisms from muscle contractions that might occur perhaps access the hormones that will boost your BG so, while the paramedics go 'woah, your blood sugar was only 37!' it may very well have been lower 20 minutes earlier?
